Aurora
by DreamxMaker
Summary: AU in which Sleeping Beauty is left to force herslef awake, then go save her Prince Charming, passing through tests of wit, courage and strength to finally defeat Melefacent, save her Prince and restore her kingdom. If it all works according to plan that is, and things have a nasty habit of not working out. Rated T to be safe. Please read and review.
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

I sit in my chair like an obedient little lap dog- I mean princess. I am stuck in a dream world, fully conscious of everything that has happened, is happening and what is supposed to happen on the outside world, but unable to wake up.

"Damn those fairies." I curse under my breath. Wait. There's no need to mutter under my breath here. No one can hear me.

"Damn those idiotic, annoying, lying, bitching fairies!" I scream at the top of my voice, standing up like I am begging someone to yell at me for saying such shaming things.

Of course no one does.

I sigh and plop back down on my stupid chair, the only chair in this god-forsaken dream world. As a matter of fact, the only thing in this god-forsaken dream world except me. I drum my fingers on the arm-rest.

"God-dammit Phillip, you brat, COME AND GET ME!" I scream at the nothingness around me. This stupid prince thing is taking too long; I had never been one for long waits, or waits at all for that matter.

I stand and start pacing, trying to think.

"I've tried walking away," I say to myself, talking out loud is the only way to keep sane in this stupid place, unless talking out loud counts as crazy. Whatever. "All I did was walk around the world. Or, that's what it must be since I only walked a few minutes and ended up back where I started. I tried digging or tried trying to dig. I tried piercing the fabric of this time-place continuum, but it takes a little more than just the broken leg of a chair." I sigh and slump back into my chair (which, by the way repaired itself after I tried to pierce the fabric of the time-space continuum) and try my best to think.

"You know what, I'm bored." I say, randomly, and before my natural etiquette (damn you, princess blood) can kick in I decide to lie down on the ground. I have no idea what could possibly compel me to do it, but I do, and I realize something. The ground feels like grass, despite the fact that it looks like a flat, white piece of rock. This quickly reminds me of my other senses. One of the only tactics I haven't tried is self-mutilation.

"Ugh, I don't think I should do this." I say staring at the sharp piece of wood I have broken from my chair. My chair itself is discarded somewhere trying to repair itself. "Oh well, I've already committed." I throw back my long dirty-blonde hair, summon all my courage and stab myself with the piece of wood. It hurts. But it doesn't hurt nearly as much as I expected it to.

Small beads of blood escape from my vein. And suddenly I feel dizzy and the dream-world becomes fuzzy. But these reactions aren't from the blood; I've been through that before. These reactions are because I'm waking up!

My eyes flutter open and the second I notice my surroundings I bolt up and discard the ridiculous rose that was placed in my hands, by the fairies, no doubt. I gingerly flex my muscles, sleeping for several days takes a toll on your limbs. I sigh when I notice I am wearing the princess getup I had on earlier. I only realize this now, but I had been wearing a much more comfortable outfit in the dream-world.

"Damn fairies actually did do something right," I mutter to myself. I glance at my feet and almost burst into tears right there, instead of going barefoot, which is the norm for me, I am wearing the tightest, highest heels I have ever seen.

"Oh no, I'm sorry fairies you'll have to wear your own insane death-wishes." I pull off the shoes to the great relief of my feet.

I stood, stretched and walked to the window, tripping a little on my idiotic dress. When I looked out the window I found myself wishing I had just sucked it up, swallowed my pride and stayed in the dream-world.

Everyone outside is asleep, I lean out the window, trying to find one person that is awake, but I can't see any.

"Fairies!" I scream, expecting them to pop up, they are magical anyway. "Flora! Fauna! Merryweather!" I turn back to my room and jump at the sight of the fairies floating in front of me.

"You don't have to yell, dear" Fauna says sweetly.

"Yes, we were on our way here anyway," Flora continued.

"Why, I could-" _wring your fat little necks_ I almost say, but then I notice the look of deep concern on Merryweather's face, she always was my favorite, she wanted to tell me everything from the beginning, even though I was still angry with them I pulled on a concerned face. "What's wrong?"

"It's Prince Phillip, he has been captured by Maleficent, and he needs you to help him." Flora says like she expects me to jump at the opportunity to save the prince. Instead, for spite, I play the little princess card.

"But, dears, I can't help the prince, I don't know how to fight," I lie through my teeth; I have been practicing with a sword, well a stick, for a while now.

"We believe in you," Flora says, I had no idea fairies could lie so well.

"Pff, then why'd you lock me in that dream-world?" I scoff.

"That was not a punishment, Rose." Fauna says, typical Fauna, completely oblivious.

"Don't call me Rose." I sigh, no way out. "Fine, I'll do it. But, I need some things first."

"The sword of truth," Flora waves her wand and a sword appears in my hand.

"And the shield of virtue," Merryweather waves her wand and a shield appears on my arm.

I look over the new gifts, and determine they're pretty good weapons.

"But there's more," I say placing the weapons on the bed and tying back my hair with a ribbon. "I'm going to need shoes, and anything but a dress." I stare at the fairies expectantly, they know that it's either they agree or there's no deal.

"Fine," Flora finally sighs. They fashion me an easily movable outfit, and comfortable shoes.

"So, where is his highness this fine evening?" I say with a smile and a swipe of my sword.

**A/N ok, so I just figured I should post this and figure out if it's any good. About the space-time continuum thing… I have no idea… I know you can't pierce it with the leg of a chair, but meh… whatever. Hope you enjoyed. :-D**


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

"Rose," Fauna warns, "this is not as simple as you may think it is."

"I think it's pretty straight-forward. I go in there, I battle Maleficent, maybe with a little help from you guys, I save the prince and we're out of there." My smile fades at the expressions of worry on the fairies' faces.

"Maleficent knows you're coming, she's created a maze outside the castle. You must defeat all of her challenges to continue on to fight her." I sigh, why did I assume Maleficent would make this easy?

"Well, better get started now then," I smile at the fairies surprise; they thought I would give up. That's the bad thing about me; I haven't given up on anything in my entire life. I dash down the stairs and out into the dim courtyard of the palace. I feel guilty walking among the people forced to sleep because of me, but plaster on a brave face and weave through the people.

"I'm going to need a horse," I say to no one in particular. Suddenly a warm nose is nuzzling my neck and I quickly swing myself onto his already saddled back.

I pull back on the reins when we reach the maze of tall hedges; an ugly pig is waiting at the entrance.

"Princess Aurora?" he snorts, I nod dismounting.

"Through this maze you will have to- d'uh- pass tests, and er," he pauses, scratching his head trying to remember the words Maleficent most likely told him to say.

"If you want to do something the only way to do it is by doing it yourself!" I sing, no doubt Maleficent is watching this magically from the safety of her palace walls. Confirming my suspicion Maleficent's head appears, floating and ghost-like next to the pig.

"You are right, Princess. I am terribly sorry that I can't be with you to send you off, but please, enjoy my little gift to you." Maleficent disappears with an evil laugh, cackle really, and the pig smiles a broken-toothed grin at me.

"Yeah, what she said," I roll my eyes and tug the horse closer to the entrance. The pig sticks out a grimy hand to stop me.

"D'uh, you can't take pets," I release the horse and continue on, into the dark hedges.

The entrance disappears behind me, "no going back now," I mutter. Almost immediately I reach a fork in the road, with two creatures standing guard. A miniature Flora is suddenly at my ear, instructing me.

"One of these creatures always tells the truth, the other always lies. They both know the correct path to take. You can ask them only one question, but it has to be the same question for both of them." She whispers.

"Which one tells the truth?" I whisper back.

"We don't know, you have to find out," with this she disappears again. I walk up to the two creatures, thinking about what to ask them.

"Do you have a question for us?" one creature asks with a terrifying smile, baring his sharp, bloody teeth.

"Remember, you're only allowed one question," the other warns, matching the smile of the first. An idea strikes me, and I turn to the creature on the right.

"Which path would your companion say is the correct path?" the creature smiles.

"He would say the left path," I nod and turn to the other creature.

"Which path would your companion say is the correct path?"

"He would say the left path," I nod.

"So, one of you is lying, and saying the truthful one would tell the wrong path. The other is telling the truth and saying that the liar will tell the wrong path. Since both of you said the left path I can know that the right path is the correct path." I smile sweetly at the creatures' dumb-founded expressions and continue to take the right path.

"How did you figure that out?" Mini Merryweather asked from my shoulder. I shrugged.

"I guessed," I giggle as she assumes the same expression of confusion as the creatures.

"No time for frivolity, we need to go to the next challenge!" Mini Flora says from my other shoulder.

"Well it seems I have an angel and a devil on my shoulders," I said, motioning to Flora as the devil. Merryweather heartily laughs at my joke, but stops short when we hear whooshing sounds behind us. I spin, swiftly, brandishing my sword and sending Flora and Merryweather flying.

My eyes widen when I see a mass of vines thrusting its weeds out at me. I screech in spite of myself and start hacking away at the attacking plants. But nothing seems to be taking any effect.

"The roots!" I hear Flora scream from somewhere behind me. _She would know_, I say to myself and duck down.

The roots are guarded tightly by more vines and I start chopping at them. They are harder to reach than I assumed and by the time I am able to swing the fatal blow I am scratched and my hair is loose.

The roots are like massive tree trunks, in other words, ridiculously difficult to chop down, especially with only a sword. But I keep chopping at them mercilessly and soon they give. I stand, breathless and glare at the fairies.

"What was that?" I pant as the fairies return to their normal size.

"There will be many tests of your strength along with riddles and problems to test your wit." Fauna coos, knowing I am going to be angry.

"You know you could have told me!" I screech, "I was nearly killed by a plant!"

I don't wait for the fairies and continue on, taking a path left even though it is more than likely the incorrect path. Sure enough, it's a dead end. I turn to take the other path, but find the hedge has grown back.

"Of course!" I hiss, turning on my heel and eyeing the other side. I notice a few holes in the hedge where I could put my feet and hands. I had never been a fabulous climber but I struggle up and find the tops of the hedges can easily support my wait.

I start running along the tops and am stopped short when I hear a hissing behind me. I slowly turn around, hand on my sword and when I am completely turned I find myself face-to-face with a dog the size of a horse. It swishes its tail and I see the other half of the animal is a lion. It smiles at me.

"I'll make a deal with you, if you can solve my riddle I will let you go down into the maze. If, however, you do not solve my riddle I will devour you," the creature states.

I look around, mentally begging the fairies to help me, I had never been any good at riddles. I couldn't see them anywhere, so I slowly nodded.

"F-" my voice cracked, and I cleared my throat and tried again, "Fine, I'll try your riddles."

**A/N The idea for the hedge maze is from ****Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire****. Correct road riddle is from /all-kinds-of-riddles/riddles/the-long-path-1999113010352/2/#halfwaydown **


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